Thread: Help in understanding a sentence, please

The bold part.


For all the rest of his life he had a special warm feeling for kitchens and those peculiar sounds and smells that seemed somehow to combine into a bustling seriousness that had to do with love and food and comfort and security and, above all, home.

I don't understand about if it is a reference to 'a special warm feeling' or 'sounds and smells'?

For all the rest of his life he had a special warm feeling for kitchens and those peculiar sounds and smells that (these feelings or these sounds and smells?) seemed somehow to combine into a bustling seriousness that had to do with love and food and comfort and security and, above all, home.

The same with 'that had to do with love...'

Originally Posted by Ramil

I don't understand about if it is a reference to 'a special warm feeling' or 'sounds and smells'?


The same with 'that had to do with love...'

"to combine into a bustling seriousness" refers to "those peculiar sounds and smells".
"that had to do with love" refers to "a bustling seriousness".

Originally Posted by sperk

Originally Posted by Ramil

I don't understand about if it is a reference to 'a special warm feeling' or 'sounds and smells'?


The same with 'that had to do with love...'

"to combine into a bustling seriousness" refers to "those peculiar sounds and smells".
"that had to do with love" refers to "a bustling seriousness".

Thanks, this is my attempt of translation:

На всю свою жизнь он сохранил особые теплые чувства к кухням, их характерным звукам и запахам, которые, словно сливаются в ту суетливую серьёзность, которая ассоциируется с любовью, едой, комфортом, безопасностью и, прежде всего, – с домом.

I'm not sure if I translated bustling seriousness correctly. Do these words together really make sense in English?

>сливаются в ту суетливую серьёзность
I would omit ту, which implies to me определенный артикль but the text is about "a bustling seriousness" not "the bustling seriousness."

Originally Posted by chaika

>сливаются в ту суетливую серьёзность
I would omit ту, which implies to me определенный артикль but the text is about "a bustling seriousness" not "the bustling seriousness."

The problem is that these two words 'суетливая серьёзность' simply don't sound right together. Can you imagine a bustling seriousness? Comprised of smells and sounds?

Originally Posted by Ramil

Originally Posted by chaika

>сливаются в ту суетливую серьёзность
I would omit ту, which implies to me определенный артикль but the text is about "a bustling seriousness" not "the bustling seriousness."

The problem is that these two words 'суетливая серьёзность' simply don't sound right together. Can you imagine a bustling seriousness? Comprised of smells and sounds?

it doesn't sound right in English either.

Originally Posted by sperk

Originally Posted by Ramil

Originally Posted by chaika

>сливаются в ту суетливую серьёзность
I would omit ту, which implies to me определенный артикль but the text is about "a bustling seriousness" not "the bustling seriousness."

The problem is that these two words 'суетливая серьёзность' simply don't sound right together. Can you imagine a bustling seriousness? Comprised of smells and sounds?

it doesn't sound right in English either.

That's what I wanted to hear, thank you.

"...bustling seriousness...." honestly, what's that supposed to be....?
doesn't make any sense to me!

Sorry about the unhelpful response Ramil; but the expression sounds like a strange "non sequitur" to me....

A market place, a fairground or a perhaps a train station can be described as "bustling" but how can an abstract feeling like "seriousness" be "bustling"? Or am I missing something?

Originally Posted by Hanna

"...bustling seriousness...." honestly, what's that supposed to be....?
doesn't make any sense to me!

Sorry about the unhelpful response Ramil; but the expression sounds like a strange "non sequitur" to me....

A market place, a fairground or a perhaps a train station can be described as "bustling" but how can an abstract feeling like "seriousness" be "bustling"? Or am I missing something?

Okay, I am guess no one here has ever "worked" in a kitchen?

Ramil... is the line before that ...The first thing the boy Garion remembered was the kitchen at Faldor's farm.

Okay, so in restaurant kitchens... there is this chaos everywhere and every day from when you open until you close. It is like a ballet of people, food, knives, plates, pots and pans...etc... It is "bustling" yet it is also "serious" work as you don't want to drop something, burn the food our yourself, you need to get the orders our quickly and yet they must be correct. In the farm kitchen, it can be the same way if you are butchering an animal or making jams. You only have a set amount of time to get things done and if you mess it up, it could be an entire batch of food and it is now wasted and you can't replace it as the crop has been picked and whatever you have is what you have.

Each place has their own rhythm or feel and yet, they are all the same... hectic, fast passed, lots of pressure, yelling, scrambling... a bustling seriousness.

Originally Posted by rockzmom

Ramil... is the line before that ...The first thing the boy Garion remembered was the kitchen at Faldor's farm.

Yes )))

Okay, so in restaurant kitchens... there is this chaos everywhere and every day from when you open until you close. It is like a ballet of people, food, knives, plates, pots and pans...etc... It is "bustling" yet it is also "serious" work as you don't want to drop something, burn the food our yourself, you need to get the orders our quickly and yet they must be correct. In the farm kitchen, it can be the same way if you are butchering an animal or making jams. You only have a set amount of time to get things done and if you mess it up, it could be an entire batch of food and it is now wasted and you can't replace it as the crop has been picked and whatever you have is what you have.

Each place has their own rhythm or feel and yet, they are all the same... hectic, fast passed, lots of pressure, yelling, scrambling... a bustling seriousness.

Well, thanks for the explanation. Generally the meaning is clear, but it's when you practice in written translations you start to bump on such difficult things.